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This past weekend, workers at the Indira Ghandi Airport in Delhi got the surprise of a lifetime when they discovered a 13-year-old boy wandering around the tarmac in his pajamas. When Indian immigration officials questioned him, they learned that he was from Afghanistan and had snuck onto a KAM Airlines flight out of Kabul in an attempt to get to Tehran, Iran. Wild, right? Well, it gets even crazier. As it turns out, this teenage stowaway spent the 90-minute flight hiding out in the airplane’s landing gear.
An Afghan boy traveled from Kabul to Delhi by hiding in the landing gear compartment of a plane, Indian authorities have said. The boy, who authorities estimated was about 13 years old, was found wandering around the tarmac near where the plane had parked shortly after it had landed on Sunday morning, according to a statement from India’s Central Industrial Security Force.
When they questioned him, authorities found he was from Kunduz in northern Afghanistan and that he had traveled by hiding in the “rear central landing gear” of a KAM Airlines aircraft, the statement added.
They also found a small red audio speaker in the area the boy was hiding. He was repatriated back to Afghanistan later that day.
The distance between Kabul and Delhi is about 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) and the flight took about an hour and a half.
Hiding in a plane’s wheel well is the most common method used by stowaways in their sought-after journeys, even though it is incredibly dangerous.
More than 77% of people who have attempted to hitch an illegal ride on an aircraft have died, the Federal Aviation Administration said in 2019.
Sneaking onto an airplane and accidentally ending up in India instead of Iran? Even if the story ended right here, it would still be nuts, especially because of how young he is. But, I can’t believe that he hid in the wheel well and survived! That kid is so dang lucky to be alive. What he did was so dangerous. That area isn’t pressurized, so he also could have died from lack of oxygen. Or he could have gotten crushed by the landing gear! The average temperature outside of an airplane at cruising altitude is -40°F to -60°F. It’s a wonder that he didn’t get frostbite or freeze to death.
According to the BBC, the teen told authorities that he didn’t have any particular reason for trying to sneak onto a flight to Iran but rather he was just curious. So, he took his little red speaker and went for it. That is some intense curiosity. There has to be more to the story, right? I can’t imagine how confused he must have been when he realized that he was in the wrong country. Thank goodness he was found unharmed.
Images credit Wzm Pictures and Amar Preciado on Pexels, Kam Air via Instagram
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